[DOE LETTERHEAD]

NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

January 23, 2002

The Honorable John T. Conway
Chairman
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
625 Indiana Avenue, NW.
Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20004-2901

Dear Mr. Chairman:

This letter is an interim response to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (Board) letter of November 26, 2001, which noted continuing concerns in the maintenance program at the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12). Your letter requested a briefing on the achievements and outcomes of maintenance upgrade efforts such as backlog reduction, establishment of reliable maintenance schedules, tracking and reduction of equipment unavailability, tracking of maintenance history, and identification of required maintenance for vital equipment.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has been following the progress of the Y- 12 Maintenance Improvement Plan, submitted to the Board on June 15, 2001, including a recent Integrated Safety Management Verification, which evaluated maintenance process performance. The Board staff issue report dated October 29, 2001, enclosed with your letter, is based on a staff review conducted at Y-12 in August 2001. BWXT has continued in the implementation of their maintenance improvement program and is addressing areas previously identified as impacting the effectiveness of the Y-12 Maintenance Program.

The staffs of the NNSA Y-12 Area Office and BWXT have communicated with your staff regarding ongoing activities, data collection, and plans for an upcoming maintenance outage. Although progress is being made in most of the noted areas of concern, we need adequate time to obtain sufficient data to determine the effectiveness of the Maintenance Improvement Plan actions in improving Y-12's material condition. As discussed with your staff, we should have the appropriate data and metrics to support a brief to the Board in April 2002.

If there are questions, please contact me or have your staff contact Xavier Ascanio at 301-903-3757.

Sincerely,

David E. Beck
Assistant Deputy Administrator
for Military Application and
Stockpile Operations
Defense Programs

cc:
M. Whitaker, S-3.1